Grabarz and Sharman named in GB & NI Team for World Indoors

A 35-strong team have been named to represent Great Britain and Northern Ireland at the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Sopot, Poland on 7-9 March.

The team features a number of athletes who excelled in last weekend’s Sainsbury’s Indoor Grand Prix in Birmingham and the Sainsbury’s British Championships at Sheffield.

Laura Muir (Andy Young), currently ranked number one in the world over 800m leads the selections, with pole-vaulters Holly Bleasdale (Scott Simpson) and Luke Cutts (Trevor Fox) globally ranked second in their events leading the way following strong indoor campaigns so far in 2014.

Asha Philip (Christine Bowmaker) also second ranked in the world goes in the 60m whilst 19 year old rising sprint star Sophie Papps (Dan Cossins) will make her GB & NI senior debut in the same event – Dina Asher-Smith choosing to concentrate on her build-up towards the outdoor season.

Defending 2012 indoor medallists selected include Andrew Osagie (Craig Winrow), Tiffany Porter (Rana Reider), Dwain Chambers (Reider), Shara Proctor (Reider) and a number of athletes who medalled as part of the men’s and women’s 4x400m teams in Istanbul.

The new UK National record holder in the high jump Katarina Johnson-Thompson (Mike Holmes) has accepted selection for the long jump, following confirmation that that she has not secured an invite from the IAAF for the Pentathlon.

Following on from James Dasaolu’s (Steve Fudge) injury last weekend*, Richard Kilty (Reider) has been selected for the 60m alongside Chambers, whilst Nigel Levine (Linford Christie)will compete in the 400m after impressing with victory at the Sainsbury’s Indoor grand Prix last weekend.

There are also major championship comebacks to the GB & NI team for former Olympic decathlete Daniel Awde (Chris Zah) as part of the men’s 4x400m squad, Jemma Simpson (Mark Rowland), in the 1500m Andy Pozzi (Malcolm Arnold) in the 60m hurdles and Tom Parsons (Aston Moore) in the high jump.

British Athletics Performance Director Neil Black said: “This is a relatively young team with a number of new faces taking individual places which is encouraging as we focus on long term development towards 2016 and 2017.

“Where there were any close decisions we have prioritised the Sainsbury’s British Athletics Championships results and it is good to see athletes and their coaches who have made significant breakthroughs in the last year are maintaining those results.”